10 Things We Wish We’d Packed In Our Motorhome

Ten things we wish we’d packed and not packed in our motorhome

The things you can bring with you in your motorhome are obviously limited by both the storage available, and the overall legal weight of your van. Also, we’ve found that full timing in a van works best when:

(a) you have enough storage to stow everything, so you don’t have to move chairs out of the bathroom in order to use it for example
(b) you can quickly get at the things you need to use most

Our van has a 3100Kg weight limit, and no garage space. On our travels so far we’ve found there are some things we really don’t need, some we wish we had brought with us, and some we have, which we’re really pleased we brought along! Once we’d set off we found that aquiring things becomes that much more difficult, especially as we’re on the road so much; it’s not just a case of hitting eBay or Amazon and getting it sent out!

10 things we have which we don’t need

1. An iPad. I loved this when we were at home, but as we hardly ever have WiFi, it’s use is seriously limited on the road. Get a NetBook instead.
2. A TV. We have a 15″ flat panel 230V TV and an analogue aerial. We’ve never even tried to see what we can pick up, there’s far too much to see and do without it. The TV’s just taking up space and weight.
3. The wind-up radio. The van radio works perfectly well.
4. Cycle helmets. We use the bikes infrequently and when we do, we can’t be bothered to dig out the helmets. Sad, but true.
5. The halogen heater. We do use this and it’s nice and quiet, but it’s huge; get something smaller.
6. The 12V slow cooker. This would be great, but even after 10 hours, diced veg is still uncooked.
7. My ‘Management Consulting’ book. OK, I may get around to reading this at some point but for now it’s taking up too much space on the book shelf.
8. Charlie’s soft toy. For whatever reason it makes him frisky, and so it’s had to have been removed!
9. A bottle jack which can’t be used to change a flat tyre. Yes, I bought a jack which only has enough range to lift the van when the tyre is fully inflated. Oops. We now have an axle stand so I can lift the van, sit it on the stand, fully screw out the bottle jack and lift it the rest of the way. Test you jack works with a flat tyre!
10. A roof-mounted air con unit. We’re not even sure this works, and it takes up cupboard space with a big water bottle. It was already on the van when we got it, otherwise we’d never have fitted it.

10 things we wish we’d brought

1. Maps! We have a TomTom GPS, which is great but has some serious limitations. We only had a detailed road map of France, and wish we’d stocked up on maps for each country we plan to visit.
2. A double skillet cooking system. This is basically a couple of pans which sit on top of each other, allowing you to make best use of limited hob space. It can also be used as a sort of oven.
3. A decent tin opener. Somehow we completely forgot to bring one and the one we bought in France is pretty poor at actually opening tins; it’s more of a tin-hacker.
4. An insurance policy with a lower excess. Ours is £350 per claim, which means we had to pay for the skylight we ‘lost’ and we’ll not get mich back from our tyre blowout either.
5. An alarm clock. We bought one in France as we found we were sleeping until 10am every day.
6. A 12V charger for the laptop. We have to charge it on an inverter, which is a real pain and not very efficient.
7. A bread knife. We found uncut loaves last longer.
8. Trainers without a hole in the sole. Karrimor? Quality? Not in this case.
9. A new leisure battery for the van. Trying to buy one on the road proved a real pain and we ended up buying a 100Ah starter battery; we’ll see how well it lasts. I’ll throw new tyres into this item too – having a blowout wasn’t fun and could have been rather dangerous. Basically, get a new leisure battery and tyres if you’re in any doubt as to how old yours are.
10. More ‘quick dry’ clothing. As I type this the inside of our van is completely full of hanging wet clothing as the campsite tumble dryer is broken. Not great!

10 things we’re glad we brought

1. Charlie, our pooch! Having him means we can’t go in to lots of places, or we have to limit our time away from the van. However, he’s a wonderful little companion and we’d not have left him behind for the world.
2. Dave our Hymer van. He’s had a few issues and he’s got limited space, but on the whole the layout and experience works really well for us. Also, he has a large LPG bottle fitted, which has worked really well (no swapping of bottles in the night for us, and the gauge on it seems to work).
3. Sofa covers. Ju made some from Ikea throws. Charlie messes them up in no time and having them means we can keep the sofa cushions reasonably clean.
4. A spare set of bedding. This allows us to change the bed whenever we want, without the hassle of trying to wash and dry a set of bedding in a day.
5. Ju’s Nikon D40 camera, or any decent camera. There are so many great things to see and photograph.
6. Vodaphone Data Traveller SIM and Android phone. This provides us with a way to use email and web access pretty much anywhere, anytime.
7. A dustpan and brush squeegee. Ju sweeps the van floor every day (we took up the carpets, which was a great idea) and the squeegee is great for getting all the condensation off the windscreen in the morning.
8. Webbed matting. We have this in all the cupboards to stop things sliding around as we drive. Things still move, scaring the hell out of us, but it stops lots of rattles. We also use tuppaware to ensure we can efficiently use cupboard space and pack things in tightly.
9. Blackout curtain lining. Ju fitted a blackout/thermal lining to all of our curtains which cover the windows and pull across between the cab and bed areas. Some of the areas we park in are floodlit and would be hard to sleep in without the blackout linings. £35 from eBay and day’s painful sewing (Ju had sold the sewing machine by this point) and voila, comfort.
10. Our ADAC policy has turned out to be brilliant. For €100 you get peace of mind for every country in Europe, and all their operatives seem to speak English.

Cheers, Jason